Several methods of developing mobile communication using asp.net

ASP.net today's consumers are not just demanding access to the Internet through personal computers, they also need to access them in other ways, and the site's designers are distressed. Their first instinct is to create multiple navigation paths through an existing Web site. Many web developers use this mechanism to solve the problem of different versions of browsers supporting HTML specifications differently (for example, some versions of browsers can support frame and others cannot). Although this approach is easier to implement, because different devices require different Web page displays, the Web site's pages will grow exponentially as the access device increases, which can complicate the maintenance and management of the site. So web developers have to find a better way to solve them.


XML and XSLT


XML and XSLT have become the most effective ways to solve the problem of the independence of browsing web devices. Web developers can use XML and XSLT to create Web sites that are based on static XML documents and dynamic XML data streams returned from the database. A web designer can create an XSL template that receives an XML stream and converts the XML data flow to HTML that is recognized by the device that is used to browse the Web page, and the developer designs the site and sends the HTML file converted by the corresponding XSL template to the client browser, rather than dealing with multipath issues.


From a resource-use standpoint, this method of creating a Web site is effective because each page requires only an XML file, and each device type is a single XSL template that can process an XML file. But if you're dealing with a system, because when a user browses to a Web page, the pages are dynamically generated, rather than simply read from the hard drive, the processing efficiency is low.


Unfortunately, to implement the above mechanism, today's designers and developers should have more knowledge and experience in XML and XSLT. It is for this reason that there are few web sites and Web applications in our real life that can support mobile devices.


Using Mmit


Microsoft is trying to use the. NET Framework and Microsoft Mobile Internet Toolkit (MMIT) to address the problem of accessing a Web site through a variety of mobile devices, and Microsoft has advocated visual Studio from the outset. NET and the. NET Framework as the primary platform for developing connectivity and fractured applications for mobile devices. While the tools that support the fractured model are still in beta testing, a few months ago, MMIT provided the tools to support the creation of connection-type applications. These tools will also appear as a standard feature in Visual Studio. NET and the next version of the. NET Framework.


MMIT allows developers to create Web applications that support mobile devices, and does not have a device dependency problem like XSLT (because each device requires its own set of XSL templates). Because MMIT provides a set of device-independent controllers and a set of device adapters, developers can use its device independent controller to develop applications that are not device-dependent. Mmit in Visual Studio. NET has a number of controllers on the device in the toolbox, as well as some templates for developing fast mobile device applications. Once the developer completes the application development, these device controllers can be published to the server running the device adapter so that the device controller can be used by multiple device terminals.


When a connected mobile device requests a Web page developed using the MMIT controller, ASP. NET run engine queries the device's browsing capabilities and assigns it a corresponding device adapter that automatically converts the value returned from the controller into a format that the device can use. The device adapter not only handles the display, it also generates markup language code for the device to manage and return input values. For example, a developer can create a single page that can be browsed by a pocket computer or mobile phone by using WAP. Users of the device can interact with the Web site using a stylus or cell phone key from a pocket computer, ASP. NET can identify the return data of the code generated by the device adapter and handle it accordingly.


Advantages and disadvantages of various methods

It's not that if you're developing mobile communications you have to use MMIT, but it's also possible to use old-fashioned XML and XSLT techniques. In fact, the support for XML specifications built into the. NET framework makes it easier to create support for multiple devices using XML and XSLT techniques than with MMIT. But to develop a connected Web application, you may still want to first consider using MMIT.


Using the Mmit method, you can design a device for your application to access it, so that when the new device is available, you can use the new device by simply adding additional device adapters to the ASP.net server. You can also create a device controller that is supported by an existing or future device adapter by extending an existing MMIT controller. Another key benefit of using MMIT is the ability to leverage ASP.net's internal state management system, and developers must develop and maintain their own state management methods if they create an XSLT based mobile communication application.